To Forgive and Forget
by blitzente
Summary: The unexpected return of a familiar foe leaves Iori shattered. His friends do their best to comfort him, but when something else begins to prey on his loss, trouble starts to brew.
1. Return

**Disclaimer:** I don't make any out of writing this. Digimon belongs to Toei and Bandai, not to me.

**Notes:** This chapter was beta read by Stained in Negativity, and I'm very grateful to her; even though her stories aren't exactly my thing, they aren't bad either, so count this as a rec.

* * *

**To Forgive and Forget**

Chapter 1: Return

High above the still waters, a dark silhouette soared through the air on mismatched wings, practically invisible against the clouded night sky.

It didn't know who it was, or why it had come into being. It didn't even know where this journey would lead it.

But as it flew ever closer to the clouds, fuelled by instinct and distant memory, it knew one thing - it was looking for someone. Someone, who - in another time, in another place - had done something unforgivable. Something which deserved retribution.

And it was angry. Very angry.

* * *

In the sky, a watery sun shone feebly onto the graveyard. A slight breeze ruffled the darkened, bare branches of the trees. Piles of clean, white snow were littering the ground. 

A lone young boy was making his way through the slush, his thick blue coat wrapped tightly around him, a plastic carrier bag grasped tightly in one hand. He walked on past the assorted graves, giving only cursory glances to each headstone he passed.

"Iori!" a raspy voice called from behind him. "Wait up, wait up!"

Iori looked over his shoulder, and noticed that the yellow armadillo-like Digimon had stopped walking. He laughed. "Come on, Armadimon, the snow isn't that bad!"

Armadimon snorted. "Easy for you to say, Iori, with your warm coat and your warm vest and your... uh..." He shook his head. "Point is, couldn't you have picked a day to visit when it wasn't so cold?"

"If you want to take a little rest, that's okay," Iori told him. "I'll only be a minute. Here, look after this -"

The bag landed on the ground with a wet thump.

"H-Hey! Iori! Don't leave me behind!"

Armadimon watched his partner's retreating back, and sighed. Eventually, he pulled himself to his feet, took one of the handles in his mouth and followed the footsteps Iori had left in the snow.

* * *

Compared to the other surrounding gravestones, this particular one was still relatively shiny and new-looking. Carefully, almost reverentially, Iori reached out a gloved hand and brushed away some of the snow covering it. He bowed his head. 

"...Father," he whispered, staring at the ground.

It wasn't often that Iori visited this grave. This was only the fourth time he'd set foot in the graveyard all year, and even that was more often than usual - normally, months could go by between visits. Iori always found it surprising, given how infrequent his trips were, how he nearly always found himself short of things to tell his father.

"I'm... doing well," he said out loud. "Same goes for mother, and grandpa. I hope you're all right too... wherever you are."

He clenched his fists and carried on.

"School? I don't think I'm doing badly... I'm in the fourth grade now. About a month ago, we took a test, and I came out with one of the top ten marks in the grade." _I hope you're proud of me_, he added silently.

Somewhere on the edge of Iori's hearing, a faint sound of footsteps crunching through the snow was getting steadily closer. He ignored them.

"The Digital World? I know, it's been nearly a year. We're still busy cleaning things up. The boundaries of the Digital World are still pretty unstable, but we're getting there. Of course, without your friend Mr. Oikawa, we would be even further behind." Iori smiled ruefully to himself. "Then again, without Mr. Oikawa, there probably wouldn't be anything to clean up in the first place."

He heard Armadimon's voice from some distance away. "Iori! Hey, Iori! What'd you ditch me for?"

Iori looked up. "Just a moment, all right?" he called back, and turned back to the gravestone. "I have to go now," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Mother asked me to run some errands for her earlier... I only came here because we were going home, and it wasn't out of the way. And of course, none of us know when the next violent Digimon is going to slip between the worlds. But..." He bowed his head again. "I'll visit you again. I promise."

Walking away, he nearly tripped over Armadimon, who was huddled on the ground beside his shopping.

"Aah!"

The Digimon blinked. "Done already, Iori?"

"Yeah, I think so." Iori picked up the carrier bag again. "Come on, let's go home."

* * *

As the two of them were nearing their apartment complex, Iori almost walked into a familiar purple-haired girl running round the corner. 

"H-Hey... Miyako!" Iori took a step back. "Where are you going?"

"Iori?" Miyako adjusted her glasses, and stared for a moment. Her face broke into a wide smile. "Bingo! I was looking for you, Iori! I just went up to your apartment, and they told me you were -"

"Yeah, I took Armadimon out shopping." He held up the bag of groceries, grinning apologetically. "Sorry, Miyako, but my mother insisted that I go somewhere else for a change."

Miyako snorted. "Your mother insisted, did she? And what about us? What about our business, our livelihood, eh, Iori? Oh, the next time I see your mother, she _is_ going to get a roasting! Aren't we supposed to be your -"

Iori waved his free hand in the air, cutting Miyako off for the second time. "That aside, what did you want me for?"

"Ah... right, right." Miyako sighed. "You see, we're -"

"Another Digimon that's broken into here, right?" interrupted Armadimon, from the pavement.

Miyako stamped her foot impatiently. "Be quiet and let me talk!" she snapped.

Iori caught Armadimon's eye, and they both giggled.

The older Chosen sighed, calming down. "Okay, okay, so where was I? Yeah, it's a Digimon. Koushirou sent an e-mail to everyone's D-Terminals this morning. Actually, they're all at his place right now - he figured that yours ran out of batteries or something, so they just sent me down to fetch you."

Iori felt a slight pang of guilt. His D-Terminal... he knew he should have had it on him. After all, who knew when the next emergency might suddenly crop up? But with his increasingly busy schedule, coupled with the fact that Digimon emergences were steadily growing less frequent as time went on, he'd started leaving it at home out of habit. It hadn't run out of batteries at all - in fact, it was probably sitting on his desk with one unread message right now.

He reached into his pocket. Yes, at least he'd brought his D3. He wouldn't be entirely useless. He nodded. "Let's go then, Miyako."

"But, Iori," Armadimon protested, "what are you gonna do with all that shopping?"

Iori shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to drop it off later."

* * *

In the Izumi apartment, Miyako pushed at the door of Koushirou's room only to find that it refused to budge. 

"What are you playing at now? It's me! I've got Iori! Let us in!"

"What's the password?" a slightly muffled voice came from inside.

Miyako glared at the door. "What do you mean, password? I don't remember a password!"

"She's right, Daisuke," said a higher-pitched voice uncertainly. "I don't remember us having one either..."

"Shut up! Miyako doesn't know that!" they heard Daisuke hiss.

"I can hear you two, you know!" Miyako snapped angrily. She kicked the door inwards, and this time it did open - there was a dull thud from the other side of the door, followed by the sound of both Daisuke and Chibimon cursing.

Iori walked into the bedroom, Armadimon following close behind. The others were already there. He bowed stiffly, trying not to show off his bag of groceries. "I'm so sorry for being late. I was... busy. Running errands." _At least that's partly true_, he assured himself.

Koushirou nodded, from his chair in front of the computer. "Don't worry about it, Iori. But we'd better not waste any more time..."

He turned to the others. "All right, let's recap what we know so far, so Iori knows what's going on. It's back. Tentomon says that it's been sighted in various parts of the Digital World. We've got evidence that it's already broken through - we don't know exactly where it is right now, but it's somewhere in Japan, and going from the accounts we've gathered it'll be here in a day or two. No news of it damaging any buildings yet like last time, but it's still not a good idea to let it fly around in the real world doing whatever it wants to. It might turn up in Odaiba pretty soon, and all of us will have to be ready..."

Iori coughed. "I'm... sorry if I missed something," he said, as politely as he could manage, "but... which Digimon would this be?"

Koushirou looked at him blankly for a second, until realisation dawned. "Oh, so you didn't receive the mail after all?"

"I'm sorry," Iori said again.

"Well, in that case..." Koushirou turned back to his computer, and quickly typed something in. He stood up and moved away from it so that Iori could see. "Look at this picture."

On the screen was a fuzzy, low-quality photograph of what appeared to be a normal park, complete with flowers, trees and picnic benches. But up in the sky, a large and imposing figure cast a shadow over the grass...

Four arms. Four wings. Garurumon's legs. Kabuterimon's head.

Iori stepped back in surprise. "Chimeramon! But... how? And why here?"

He stared at Ken, who was sitting on Koushirou's bed with Minomon in his arms. For the first time, Iori noticed that he was looking uncharacteristically tired.

"I know what you're going to say," he said quietly before Iori could open his mouth again. Was his voice shaking, or was it just Iori's imagination? "I don't know how. I thought he was dead for good... just like everyone else did..."

Iori looked at his feet. Inwardly, he chided himself for automatically assuming it was Ken's fault. _He's been through a lot! You can't still blame him, more than a year later. Leave him alone for once..._

Takeru spoke up, Patamon perched on the top of his hat. "Something you haven't told us yet, though, Koushirou - how _did _Chimeramon come back? All of us were watching when it got deleted."

"By me!" Chibimon piped up proudly from the carpet. Daisuke scowled at him and tried to cover his partner's mouth with one hand.

Koushirou ignored them, suddenly looking thoughtful. "I'm not sure," he said eventually. "At first I thought it had something to do with the fact that all Digimon are reconfigured after dying..."

Ken and Takeru glanced at their respective partners.

"But that doesn't explain how Chimeramon managed to evolve back up to its Perfect-level in such a small amount of time," Koushirou continued. There was a faraway look in his eyes. "Without a human partner, evolution is supposed to be really difficult for Digimon. Never mind Perfect, even reaching Adult-level naturally should take at least a few years..."

Tailmon, at Hikari's feet, nodded in agreement.

"And we also have to consider that -"

"Does it _matter_, Koushirou?" Daisuke interrupted loudly. He pulled himself to his feet. "Listen to you, telling us all not to waste time, and then waffling about some stupid theory for hours... It's not important! What's important is that there's this mad Digimon on the loose, and we're going to make sure things don't go the way it wants them to!"

"I don't know, Daisuke," said Hikari uncertainly. "Most of us had a pretty tough time against him before."

Daisuke waved the comment aside. "Yeah, maybe we did - but that was then, when we only had our armour Digimon to back us up. We can match Chimeramon for power now! We've all got perfect-types of our own; we can outnumber it three to one! I mean, it only took me and Ken to beat Armagemon back in March - well, maybe Taichi and the others helped us out a bit... But my point is, _he_ was way tougher than any stupid flying jigsaw!" He caught Ken's eye. "No offense or anything."

Ken said nothing.

"So we're going to meet this guy head-on, and we _will_ wipe him out again! With any luck, he'll see us and run home crying!" Daisuke punched the air. "Everybody's with me, right?"

"Right!" the others chorused.

Only Ken didn't seem to be enthusiastic. Iori looked at him, concerned.

_I wonder what's on his mind..._


	2. Revenge

**Disclaimer:** I make no money out of writing this. Digimon belongs to Toei and Bandai, not to me. This disclaimer doesn't contain any typos, unlike the one in the previous chapter.

**Notes:** This chapter was also beta read by Stained in Negativity.  
I'm not used to writing action sequences, but without this one it would be difficult to advance the plot. Apologies if the pacing seems a bit off in places.  
I haven't played any of the Digimon Wonderswan games, and I don't know anyone who has, so the Millenniummon depicted here is not related to Ryou's nemesis in any way.

* * *

Chapter 2: Revenge

A couple of hours later, Iori, Takeru and Koushirou were wandering aimlessly down yet another deserted street.

The plan had sounded fine when Koushirou first mapped it out. He'd already contacted the rest of the older Chosen; while Jou was busy with upper high school work as usual, and Mimi could only offer her concern for their safety, the others had risen to the occasion with varying degrees of confidence. Even now, Taichi, Yamato and Sora had all taken separate trains to different districts of Tokyo, just in case Chimeramon decided to drop by. On the other hand, the younger team had stuck to Odaiba, searching the skies for the first trace of the rogue Digimon.

Iori's main problem was that Armadimon could neither fly nor evolve into anything which was even remotely capable of flying. All right, his jogress evolution could at least float, but there was no point in draining both his and Patamon's energy before their opponent had even shown itself.

Since Koushirou had stayed in Odaiba to remain in charge of communication, Iori had suggested that - obviously, after he'd gone back home to drop his carrier bag off and pick up his D-Terminal - the two of them search the town while the others had the sky covered. And, for some reason Iori couldn't remember, Takeru had come along as well.

Iori turned to him now. "Um, Takeru..." he said tentatively."

Takeru looked at him, Patamon still on top of his head. "Iori? What's wrong?"

"Nothing! I mean, I was wondering... uh, that is..." Iori struggled to find the best phrasing, and gave up. "Do you mind me asking you something?"

"Why not? Shoot."

Iori glanced down at Armadimon, angling for support, but his partner remained silent.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but... why are you here, again?"

"Eh?" Takeru blinked with apparent confusion. "What do you mean?"

Iori shrugged. "I just thought... you know, because Pegasmon can fly, and -"

"You mean, why didn't I join the others instead of tagging along with you and Koushirou, right?" Takeru laughed. "Are you worried about me again or something, Iori? I told everyone earlier, I just thought there were enough of us in the air. And, besides -" he dropped his voice a little, "- you don't want to be around Koushirou by yourself for that long, he used to act pretty strange sometimes..."

Iori had to stifle his own laugh, despite himself.

"You two!" Koushirou called. He was leaning against a nearby lamp post, trying to balance his battered laptop on one knee. "Miyako's sent a message!"

Both of them ran over. Iori peered at the laptop's screen. "What does it say?" he asked.

"'With Hikari now'," Takeru read slowly. "'Saw, tried to follow, lost sight of it. Will keep looking. Take care.'" He frowned. "So they've seen Chimeramon, but... 'take care'? What's she on about?"

"It probably doesn't mean anything," Koushirou said dismissively, still not looking up. "But I think that both of you ought to - argh!"

The laptop slipped and clattered to the floor. Koushirou swore loudly and knelt down.

"Hey, Koushirou, be careful with that thing!" Takeru stepped forwards and picked up the laptop for him. "What were you doing, anyway?"

Koushirou took it out of Takeru's hands. "Thanks - oh, what I'm doing? Here..." He tried to point at the screen without letting go of the laptop again. "I wrote this program a few months ago, but I never got to test it out. It tracks the presence of a D3, so we can tell where you all are... I know it's already built into the Digivices themselves, but I thought it might come in useful for the rest of us who don't have them. Look, these two dots are Hikari and Miyako... you two are round about here... I think that one is Daisuke, which means the other one must be Ken -" He broke off, and stared at the screen. "Wait a minute! They're all closing in on something... Didn't we decide to stay spread out? Unless... Takeru, Iori, I think they might have caught up with Chimeramon!"

"So, what do we do now?" Iori asked him. "Do you think they'll need our -"

But he never finished his question. At that exact moment, a wide, shimmering beam of green fire smashed into the pavement a few yards away.

Chimeramon rose above them, beating all four of its mismatched wings in rhythm. It turned one huge, baleful eye towards the three Chosen Children below, roared, and shot another fireball at them. This one missed them entirely, but the resulting shockwave hit the lamp post they were standing underneath. Takeru and Iori each grabbed one of Koushirou's arms and hauled him out of the way before it fell to the ground.

"This isn't good," Takeru muttered. He let go of Koushirou, who was still holding on to the laptop. Iori did the same. "Koushirou... you should get out of here. Go and find Daisuke - Miyako - whoever -"

Koushirou nodded breathlessly. He tucked his computer under one arm and hurried out of sight.

Patamon had jumped down onto the floor. "Let me at him, Takeru!" he squeaked. "I can take him!"

Armadimon shuffled forwards. "Leave some of him to me, okay?"

Iori fished his D3 out of his pocket and clasped it to his chest. "So, should we...?"

"We're as ready as we're going to get," said Takeru. He wasn't looking at Iori, but instead up at Chimeramon with a hardened expression. Iori remembered what had happened to him all those months ago, when the evil Digimon had first made its appearance. _It must have come as a real shock when he realised Chimeramon was alive and well... I know I was surprised, and I'm not even - I mean, I hope he doesn't explode again..._

They held their Digivices out. For a brief moment, the street was bathed in a brilliant white light. Then it passed, and both adult-level Digimon stood before them.

Chimeramon screeched and swooped down. It made a grab for Iori with one blackened arm, only to be met by a heavy tail hammer coming in the opposite direction. It reeled back, and hesitated.

"Get behind something, Iori!" shouted Ankylomon. "We'll handle this!"

Angemon nodded towards his partner. "You too," he said.

As Iori and Takeru scrambled for cover, Ankylomon charged headfirst into their enemy. It slid back several yards, its purple claws leaving tracks in the concrete.

At the same time, Angemon leapt into the air, holding a glowing fist in front of him. A blinding ray of light shone from it, hitting Chimeramon square between its wings and sending it toppling forcefully onto the ground.

Crouched behind the fallen lamp post, Iori watched the scene. It looked like their Digimon were winning... but they couldn't underestimate Chimeramon. "How long do you think they can hold out for, Takeru?" he asked, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

"Relax, Iori, they'll be fine! Besides, they can always evolve again if things start looking bad." Takeru looked back at Chimeramon, which was struggling to its feet. "I hope Daisuke and the others show up soon, though..."

* * *

On the other side of town, Daisuke ducked abruptly and almost lost his balance on Paildramon's shoulder.

"Damn it..." he muttered, pulling himself upright. The torpedo screeched past him and exploded, taking a good deal of the road out with it. "There's _still_ some of them left..." He looked over at Ken, sitting on the opposite side of their partner's head. "Hey, Ichijouji!" he yelled, trying to make himself heard over the persistent sound of gunfire from below them. "Where the hell are these things coming from?"

"I don't know!" Ken shouted back. "But the police did do us the favour of blocking this area off, so it's the least we can -" He looked behind him. His eyes widened. "Paildramon, look out!"

The hybrid Digimon turned. A lone Hangyoumon had managed to sneak up on them. It leapt at Paildramon with a triumphant cry... but before Paildramon could react, a ball of pink energy had slammed into the Hangyoumon's back and knocked it out of the air. It landed on top of another of the unconscious Hangyoumon which now filled the road. Silphymon landed on the ground nearby.

Miyako and Hikari appeared at the other side of the street. "Ken, Daisuke!" Miyako called. "We've come to help!"

Paildramon landed as well, and Ken slid off his shoulder. "You got Daisuke's email too?" he asked.

Hikari nodded. "We would have arrived sooner, only... well, we managed to find Chimeramon, but..."

"You know where he is?" Daisuke said quickly.

"Not any more," Miyako said flatly. "Our Digimon weren't fast enough." She brightened up. "On the other hand, we couldn't ignore a plea for help from our brave and fearless leader, could we?"

Daisuke didn't rise to the taunt. He looked away, still sitting on Paildramon, and surveyed the scene critically. "We're up to about ten now, maybe fifteen... there are probably going to be more coming along in a minute, _and_ we should've been going after Chimeramon all this time..." He sighed. "Guys, give me one good reason why we don't get Imperialdramon Fighter Mode to wipe out all of these guys right now and save us the trouble."

"It's just that, isn't it?" Ken said. "We haven't found Chimeramon yet, and we don't want to wear our Digimon out before we find him. To be honest, I thought even normal jogress evolution was pushing it -"

"Yeah?" Daisuke retorted. "And how were you expecting us to fight off all these -" he gestured at the Hangyoumon scattered around on the floor, "- with just our Adult-levels, if you're such a kid genius?"

Ken opened his mouth to retaliate, but a fight was averted when Koushirou pushed his way past the red tape at the end of the street. He ran up to them, panting, clutching his laptop to his chest.

"Koushirou?" Hikari looked worried. "What's happened? Weren't you with Iori?"

He shook his head breathlessly. "I -"

"Koushirou! Perfect timing!" Daisuke finally jumped down from his perch on top of Paildramon, his argument forgotten. "Listen, can we borrow your laptop for just a moment?"

Koushirou was taken by surprise. "H-Huh?"

"We need something to send all the Hangyoumon home like normal, don't we?" Daisuke pressed. "Come on, we don't want to have to drag each of these creeps to the nearest computer lab!"

For the first time, Koushirou noticed the unconscious Digimon lying in heaps nearby. He blinked. "Oh... uh, I suppose..."

"Great!" Before Koushirou could react, Daisuke grabbed the laptop out of his arms and had it open on the ground. He pointed his D3 at it. "Digital Gate, open!"

"Be quick about it, Daisuke," Paildramon's voices said from above them. "There's more of them heading this way..."

Koushirou looked up at Paildramon, around at the other kids, and down at his feet.

"Koushirou, what's with you?" Ken asked, concerned. "Is something wrong?"

He swallowed and shook his head. "No... It's nothing. Nothing important."

* * *

The battle had taken to the skies, where two Perfect-level Digimon seemed to have reached a stalemate. Shakkoumon whirled round in mid-air to avoid the fireballs being sent in his direction, almost as if he was performing an elegant dance. A flap opened near his waist, and several clay discs flew at Chimeramon, only to be batted away harmlessly before they could explode.

Below them, Iori was still having doubts. The two of them were still standing behind the lamp post Chimeramon had knocked down earlier. Simple logic told Iori that this was the most sensible thing to do when the alternative was running into the middle of a Digimon battle. It didn't make him feel any better, though.

Surely they should be doing something... he didn't know what either of them _could_ do except run for help, and Koushirou had already covered that, but he knew he didn't like the idea of just sitting around while their partners were in trouble.

"Takeru, how much longer do you think it'll take Koushirou to find the others?"

Takeru didn't answer him. He was looking fixedly ahead of them.

"What's -" Iori began to ask, but broke off. His eyes widened.

Chimeramon had landed on the road. Before their eyes, it... changed. Its wings folded up and disappeared, as its arms lengthened and turned black. Two gleaming metal cannons emerged from its back and locked into position. It reared up, and suddenly there was another, ghostly, dragon-like figure standing behind it - translucent, shimmering, and not particularly friendly.

Iori stared in disbelief. It couldn't have evolved! How could it have evolved? And yet, standing right in front of them was all the evidence he needed, pointing to the contrary.

Shakkoumon swooped down, preparing to attack again. In a fraction of a second, one of the Ultimate-level's arms blurred. There was a sickening crunch, a brief yellow glow, and an exhausted Tokomon and Tsubumon dropped to the floor.

"Tokomon!" Abandoning his caution, Takeru ran over to his partner and picked him up. "Tokomon, are you okay? Come on, say something... you're all right, you're not going to die on me again..."

Iori hadn't moved. "Takeru, we can't just stand around here any more!" he yelled. "We need to go and fetch Daisuke... Miyako... someone..."

Takeru stood up, the unconscious Tokomon still in his arms, an uncharacteristically angry look on his face. "And leave that _thing_ wandering around doing whatever the hell it feels like?"

"I don't see what you -"

"Isn't it obvious? We can't just sit back while a mad Digimon trashes half of the city! Don't you have any idea what happened last time? They'll just have to evolve back up to Perfect again..."

"You don't understand!" Iori snapped, losing his own temper. "They're tired! Even if they could evolve, there's no way we can hold him off without help! We have to -"

"Iori!" squeaked a voice from the ground; it took Iori a few moments to register it as Tsubumon's. "Look out!"

Iori was never sure exactly what happened afterwards. He remembered turning his head - seeing both of the guns glow white and fire - the crackling beam speeding towards him as he stood rooted to the spot - at the last moment, his partner leaping almost gracefully into the air - the attack exploding into a million black fragments of data - the wind suddenly howling past his ears where it had been perfectly calm a few seconds before...

And then, nothing.

* * *

Iori remained frozen to the spot. The wind had died down, just as unexpectedly as it had started. There was no sign of Chimeramon, evolved or not. Iori didn't care; his mind had gone almost completely blank. There was only one thought racing through his head: he hadn't just seen that. He hadn't just seen Tsubumon throwing himself in front of the Ultimate-level Digimon, bearing the full brunt of the attack, and...

"...Iori?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't respond.

"Iori, I..."

After a few minutes, Takeru gave up. He briefly considered sending an email to everyone letting them know Chimeramon was gone, but was spared the trouble when he heard footsteps approaching nearby.

"Hey! You two!" That was Daisuke, with V-mon running at his side. The others were following close behind him.

Takeru turned around and waved. "Took you long enough!"

Daisuke hesitated after running up to them. "Uh..." he said, confused, "wasn't Chimeramon supposed to be around here somewhere?"

"Long story short? It kind of... disappeared. What were you doing, anyway?"

He expected Daisuke to either tell him it was none of his business, or that they'd just wasted his time - but to his surprise, the goggle boy actually looked thoughtful. "Disappeared, huh?"

V-mon snorted and folded his arms. "I'm guessing it's like Daisuke said. He saw us and ran off, because we were just too much for him!"

Hikari turned to look at Iori, who hadn't moved. "What's wrong with him? Where's Armadimon?" she asked. She looked from Takeru, to the bruised Tokomon, back to Iori, and gave a small gasp. "He couldn't have..."

"He could," said Takeru. "Chimeramon went and -"

Without a word, Iori turned and began to walk away. Nobody stopped him.


	3. Recovery

**Disclaimer:** Digimon doesn't belong to me, and I don't make any money out of this.

**Notes:** Again, beta read by Stained in Negativity - it's the effort which counted ;)  
Not much happens in this chapter, and it took a lot longer to write than expected. Having some fun with the next chapter already, though, so look out for that!

* * *

Chapter 3: Recovery

It was three in the morning, and the lights were still on in Iori's bedroom. He sat cross-legged on his bed, yellow D3 in one hand, staring blankly at the wall. Images of Armadimon floated past his eyes. Armadimon walking. Armadimon laughing. Armadimon eating. Armadimon taking a snooze. Armadimon, not doing anything in particular, but just being there...

He even thought he could detect, just on the edge of hearing, the faintest echo of his partner speaking. "_Lighten up, Iori! No matter what happens, I believe in you!_" the familiar, raspy, Nagoya accented voice told him, as it had done so many times before when Iori had been feeling down.

But it wasn't real. Armadimon wouldn't be saying things like that any more. Armadimon wouldn't be around to say things like that any more.

And it was his fault. It was his fault for getting into an argument, for fighting with one of his friends when he should have been fighting the enemy in front of them.

He should have listened and evolved his partner back up again, not hesitated. He'd known that Koushirou would have fetched the others before long, and he had still held back. Why? At the time, he remembered thinking it was the logical thing to do... but, in retrospect, it had just been cowardice. Pure cowardice.

The last few days had passed in a blur. Iori could vaguely remember going out, delivering packages, going to the shops, the usual errands... but it was all in a detached, indistinct way. He hadn't told his mother or his grandfather about what had happened. After all, keeping a secret wasn't the same as lying. And they wouldn't have been able to understand, anyway. Did they know what it was like to have a Digimon partner? More to the point, did they know how hard it was to have that partner so suddenly ripped away?

He hadn't spoken to any of the other Chosen, either. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see any of them again.

Iori stood up, walked over to his computer and switched the monitor on. The image of a Digital Gate remained on the screen from when he had tried to access it earlier. He pointed his Digivice at the screen.

"Digital Gate, open!"

The Gate remained stubbornly unresponsive to his words. Iori looked at the D3. There wasn't even a single red light showing on the screen, as he knew there should be with at least two other Chosen Children nearby. By all appearances, it had completely stopped working. That would make sense. After all, he knew his own Digivice had been tied to the Digimental Armadimon had been sealed in, and now Armadimon was...

Iori shook his head to clear those thoughts, and held the D3 up again.

"Digital Gate! Open!"

Still nothing. Just like the last few times he'd tried it. Iori put the D3 down onto the desk, and climbed into bed, still not switching the lights off. He lay on his back, facing the ceiling.

He was being stupid again, he knew it. Armadimon had probably been reconfigured right after dying. Even if his own D3 wasn't working, all he had to do was ask one of the older kids to fetch Armadimon's egg for him and bring it home. They were his friends, after all. And that would be the end of it - Armadimon would hatch, and both of them could get on with their lives as if nothing had ever happened.

So why was he so reluctant to do that? Why was he taking this so hard?

* * *

Three days after Chimeramon's mysterious re-emergence and equally mysterious departure, the younger team of Chosen Children and their Digimon were once again gathering in Koushirou's apartment, with two very noticeable exceptions. 

The last to arrive was Daisuke. He walked into the bedroom with his hands in his pockets, looked around, and frowned. "Hey, guys," he said, "where's -"

He left the question hanging. There was a lengthy pause as the others exchanged awkward looks.

Finally, Koushirou broke the silence. "Well, Tentomon and I have been trying to work out exactly what happened a few days ago, and although I haven't got everything straight yet, I think we're making some progress..."

Daisuke flopped into a vacant chair. "You figured out what happened to all those Digimon yet?" he asked.

"No, but -"

"It was pretty weird, though," Minomon chimed in, sitting on Ken's lap. "There must've been twenty of them at least, and then the wind blows and poof, no more Hangyoumon."

"Actually, I'm more worried about what happened to Chimeramon," Takeru said. "It didn't look like any evolution we've seen before. And it's dangerous - I mean, Iori -"

There was another pause. Koushirou intervened again.

"We've been looking into that," he said, opening his laptop and tapping on the keyboard for a few moments.

The other children leaned forward. The picture displayed on the screen might have resembled Chimeramon, if Chimeramon was painted black and had a pair of giant cannons glued to its shoulders. Miyako started to read aloud. "Millenniummon. Ultimate-level. Jogress evolution between Chimeramon and Mugendramon..."

"Mugendramon! That's what I thought! But it couldn't have been, could it?" Takeru shook his head. "If that evolution was a jogress, Mugendramon would've had to be there... and we saw Mugendramon die, too..."

Another silence. The air was rife with unspoken questions. How was this happening? Who was next? Would it stop?

After a while, Miyako raised a different question. "_Has_ anyone seen Iori recently? Normally he's in and out of our store like a boomerang, but he hasn't turned up since last week."

Takeru blinked. "Now you mention it, I haven't run into him either..."

"Aw, come on, guys! Why are you all making such a big deal out of this?" Daisuke spread his arms. "Iori's a tough kid. So what if he's just had his partner explode on him? Give him a few more days and he'll be -"

"I saw him this morning," said Hikari, with unusual abruptness. "When my brother and I were going into town. He was at the beach, just by himself. I don't know what he was doing, but when I said hi, he sort of... ran away." She sighed. "Actually, it's a little worrying... I've never seen Iori run off without at least saying hello back. He's not that sort of person."

Thrown by the interruption, Daisuke regained his composure. "Uh, well, like I was saying," he continued, "I just don't get why everyone's acting all weird whenever we mention Iori, that's all."

"That might be because the rest of us don't have the sensitivity of a brick, Daisuke," Miyako said, in a superior tone of voice.

Daisuke blanched. "Hey, I -" He hesitated for a few seconds, and turned back to Koushirou. "Anyway, what was that you were saying about progress?"

* * *

Later, as the sun began to dip below the horizon, Miyako walked down a street by herself with a bulging bag slung over her back. It made muffled noises every few seconds, but she ignored them. 

Considering how long that "meeting" had taken, nobody had learnt much from it. What they had learnt was bad. Mysterious evolutions, mysterious reconfigurations... overall, very mysterious. And nobody was willing to do anything about it - because, really, what could they do? Go on a wild goose chase through the Digital World looking for their old enemies, when for all anyone knew there might not be any more? No, the best thing to do was wait for more appearances before taking action. That wasn't what was bugging Miyako.

But... Iori. Miyako knew as well as the others that he didn't need fussing over - come to think, she probably knew it better than the others, considering she'd known him the longest. She had suggested that they all go round to his place and talk him out of it or something, but Daisuke had been pretty adamant about leaving Iori alone, and none of them were prepared to put up with the incessant whining which would ensue if they argued with Daisuke.

As she approached her family's shop, her bag heaved violently and slid off her shoulder, landing on the pavement with another indistinct squawk. She glared at it. It did its best to look innocent. "Mmf?"

"I told you ten minutes ago already - cut that out or I'm leaving you in there overnight!" she snapped.

"Mmf."

The bag squeaked indistinctly again, but stopped moving. Miyako picked it up and slid the glass doors of the convenience store aside. She waved at Momoe, who was standing at the counter. "Hey, sis!" she called.

Momoe glanced up. "Oh, hi! You're back early." She looked back down at her customer. "All right, so the total comes to four hundred..."

"Thank you," said Iori. He bowed quickly, and took his carrier bag off the table.

Miyako gaped. "I-Iori!" she blurted out. "What... what are you..."

Iori stopped, plastic bag in hand. His eyes widened. For a moment, a shadow of fear seemed to pass over his face. Then he pushed past her and ran outside without another word.

Momoe looked puzzled at the sudden turn of events. "Miyako, what's up with your friend?"

"Ugh, where does he think he's going?" Miyako turned around and sprinted after him. "Iori!" she yelled as she ran. "Get back here!"

Left behind on the floor, Poromon struggled feebly with the zip of the bag, to very little effect. "Mmf? Mmf, mmf... Mmf! Mmf!"

* * *

Having said goodbye to Miyako by the lifts on the ground floor, Takeru made his way towards his own apartment. His head was buzzing, and not just because Patamon seemed to have fallen asleep on top of it. 

It was a little worrying, this business with Millenniummon. He'd admit that he had been pretty startled after receiving Koushirou's e-mail. After all, he'd been right there when Chimeramon died. And if Mugendramon's data had found some way to come back as well, who knew which of their defeated foes would be next? There were definitely enough of them. Archnemon and Mummymon, Vamdemon, the rest of the Dark Masters, Etemon... maybe even - Takeru twitched involuntarily - Devimon, too...

And there was the matter of Iori. Daisuke was right, really; Iori wasn't just a little kid, he acted more mature than most people Takeru knew, he probably just needed a bit of time to recover. But still, losing a partner was hard. Takeru had gone through it once, and didn't wish it on anyone else, let alone one of his best friends. He couldn't help thinking that if only everybody got together and just did their best to comfort Iori, everything would be fine...

At this point, Iori rushed past, trailing a carrier bag behind him.

Takeru was taken by surprise. "Iori! Where've you -" he started to say.

But Iori didn't reply, or even look back. Instead, he turned a corner and out of sight.

A few moments later, Miyako appeared, panting. She stopped, noticing Takeru for the first time, and tried to grin sheepishly. "Uh, hehe, hi there..." She paused to catch her breath, and continued. "Did you see which way Iori went?"

"Iori? He went that way, but... what are you chasing him for?"

"Oh, nothing, no reason - aw, who am I kidding?" She clenched a fist. "That little...! Turns up in our shop, doesn't even say hello, just runs off like that, been four days since I last saw him, could've at least -"

"I guess... maybe you just scared him or something." Takeru looked over in the direction Iori had gone. "You know," he said, changing the subject, "I was thinking about what you said earlier."

Miyako skidded to a halt mid-rant. "You... were?"

"Yeah," he said. "And I agree, we do need to talk to him some time. Maybe not all confronting him like that, though... What if we all just decided to hang out in town for a day, and got him to come along? It wouldn't be as direct, but I'm sure it would help him."

"That might actually work!" Miyako clapped her hands together excitedly. "So what, do you think I should e-mail everyone about it later?"

"Everyone... yeah," Takeru echoed. "Hikari, definitely - Ichijouji lives pretty far away, I don't know if he'd agree, but - oh, and Daisuke too."

"Daisuke?" Miyako frowned. "I bet he'd just say no right away, he's not that -"

Takeru laughed. "He won't want to be left out, trust me!"

* * *

Iori surreptitiously unlocked the apartment and ducked inside. It was dark inside; that meant nobody was at home. He slammed the door and leaned against it, breathing heavily, listening out for footsteps. After a minute or so, he relaxed. 

He checked the carrier bag. The little package he'd bought had torn at one end from all the jolting. It couldn't be helped, he reassured himself. And it wasn't as if it was a big tear - nothing had fallen out of it, anyway.

He sighed to himself. He'd panicked. That hadn't been the smartest thing to do. Why had he panicked, anyway? He'd done the same in front of Hikari and Taichi, just this morning. These were his _friends_! It wasn't as if there had been anything to be afraid of.

But no - he was afraid, a treacherous inner voice told him. He was afraid they might try and comfort him, when all he wanted was to be left alone for a while. Because, how could they understand? How could they, with all their partners right beside them... how could they know what he felt like right now?

He was being selfish and immature again, he knew it.

"Just give me a little more time, guys," he muttered, although there was nobody to hear except himself. "That's all, I promise."


End file.
